Congress reportedly near $900 billion Covid-19 stimulus bill

Congressional leaders appear to be on pace to pass an approximately $900 billion Covid-19 stimulus bill ”“ something that businesses and citizens alike have been awaiting since the passage of the $1.8 trillion CARES Act in March.

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said it is “highly likely” that Congress will work through the weekend to finalize the details of the bill.

Reportedly among the new bill”™s features are $300-per-week unemployment checks and a one-time direct payment of around $600 to most U.S. citizens.

In addition, another $300 billion would be added to aid businesses, most of it through another iteration of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), along with $25 billion for tenants having difficulty paying their monthly rent and $10 billion for the struggling U.S. Postal Service.

The compromise comes as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office in January, but represents considerably less than what Congressional Democrats had sought. Originally targeting a $3.4 trillion package in May, the Democrat-led House passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus proposal in October that among other things would have delivered $1,200 checks to most Americans and about $436 billion to state and local governments over a one-year period.

Even at the time, however, it was unlikely that the Republican-led Senate would consider that bill.

McConnell (R-Kentucky), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California), and other Congressional leaders have expressed support for the new bill, which comes at a time when the country is again teetering. Nearly 17 million Covid cases, and about 308,000 related deaths, have been recorded nationwide.

This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that there were 935,000 new claims for state benefits, compared with 956,000 the previous week, while 455,000 filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the federally funded program for part-time, self-employed and other workers who previously were ineligible for jobless benefits.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of new state claims was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week.